Posted on 01/01/2006 8:12:14 AM PST by Ninian Dryhope
Until Jim Bishop shows off his "before" pictures, his story is almost impossible to believe. Before was the summer of 2003: 31 years old, 600 pounds, a constant diet of junk, smoking, drinking, barely able to move.
"I was heading for death," Bishop says. "I became a recluse. I didn't want to see anybody, and I didn't want anybody to see me."
Now he's stabilized at 220, and he got there the old-fashioned way — no surgery, no drugs, no shortcuts.
Bishop, a data-security consultant who lives in Garland, says he was in a "contemplative state" for about a year before he finally acted.
"I was having difficulty taking care of myself, things like just getting in and out of the shower," he says. "One day I literally couldn't get my pants off because my calves were too swollen.
"I said, 'This is it.' I couldn't live another day like that."
He could hardly walk. So he got down on the floor, put his feet on the couch and did 20 crunches. The next day he did 25 and the day after that, 30.
"I did all that I could do, and I decided that maybe tomorrow I could do a little more," he says.
Feeling better Meanwhile, he swore off fast food, fried food, cigarettes and alcohol.
"I didn't make a rule about counting calories," Bishop says.
"I just ate a lot of vegetables and balanced meals. I never went hungry, but I had to teach myself to eat three meals a day, not one big meal that never ended."
He felt better immediately, he says, "and that inspired me. I didn't set out to lose 400 pounds in two years. My initial goal was just to back away from the edge."
He bought an exercise bike for the garage, where he pushed himself to do more calisthenics. After nine months, he started walking, then running.
All along the way were little milestones: friends and family noticing a change, a conversation on the stairs without becoming breathless, fitting into a button-down shirt.
"The healthier I got, the more I could work out," Bishop says. "The more I could work out, the healthier I got."
After six months he was down to about 430.
"I had set short-term goals," he says. "But then I started thinking, that was Phase One. I'm not just backing away from the edge anymore. Let's see what my body can do."
'A gym rat' He joined a Bally's health club. He took a course at the Cooper Institute to become a certified fitness specialist.
He trolled the Internet for different workout regimens that turned fat into muscle.
"I became a gym rat," he says. "When I'm sick or I tweak an ankle and I don't work out, it drives me nuts."
At 350, the needle on the beam scale (where you slide the weights across the top) didn't automatically plop to the bottom anymore.
By the start of 2005 he was at less than 300. By late summer he hit his current weight of 220, give or take a few pounds.
Along the way he's become an eloquent advocate for getting healthy and fit, speaking at area churches and encouraging fellow gym rats.
His immediate plans include a New Year's Eve wedding to Robin Dove, who stuck with him, literally, through thick and thin.
Dove, who has known Bishop for eight years, says she was concerned about the health dangers of obesity but didn't pressure him to lose weight.
"I had to let him find his own way," Dove says. "If I would have told him, I'd have been just another person nagging him. The entire time, I knew what he could be, and that's what kept me with him."
Although he's finishing a master's degree in business at the University of Dallas, Bishop thinks his future may lie in using his transformation to help others.
"People come up to me and say I've inspired them," he says. "That's humbling, but it's not about me.
"I take a spiritual view of the process. What I was doing wasn't living, it was dying. I really think God had better plans for me."
But he also knows that any encouragement from an outsider can only do so much.
"You have to flip the switch," Bishop says. "It has to be from within, and it has to be real. But you can do it."
Thanks! Those are good pictures. I certainly don't doubt that he lost the weight and that is all that matters.
Congrats to Jim Bishop. What an awesome accomplishment.
He must have an enormous amount of loose skin after losing that much weight. Getting that stuff trimmed off in a cosmetic surgery procedure would probably lose some more weight for him.
I think at 600 lbs straining to move your chin toward your chest counts as a runch.
The rest of the website is great: The fellow got married yesterday! Congrats to him and his bride!
Wow! Thanks for the pictures. The guy looks great. Looks like not only has he lost weight but he has been working out too. Working out is the only way to keep the weight off.
I'm currently rereading Atkins and this sounds totally believable.
If his diet was nothing but carbs (and much of it was by his own admission), he used sugar for energy and the excess converted to fat. Cut out the excessive carbs, use up the sugar in the body, and the stored fat is used for energy. The way he was working out, it's not hard to believe he lost a pound a day.
"Working out is the only way to keep the weight off."
So, people who are physically unable to work out are doomed to fatitude?
I think so, too, and yeah for him for making the effort. A lot of people would have thought they were lost causes and would not have tried to do something so small. I am going to read his website.
That has always made me wonder about people who have lost a lot of weight. I didn't read in the article about any plastic surgery. Did he have it or does the body compensate?
There is a link to his website in post 14, he answers most of the questions presented there.
God Bless Him.
It is possible, look at those who have the weight loss surgery. They lose very rapidly in the beginning too. A good portion of the lost weight is fluid weight. If he cut out all fast food and stuck to a common sense diet that included a lot of veggies and real whole foods he was able to be full and satisfied on a lot less calories.
I speak from experience. I lost a lot of weight doing just about the same thing. I don't exercise nearly as much as this person does, but when I decided I had had enough with the excess weight and quit the junk food I lost 60 pounds in a couple of months, mostly excess fluid. I did not crash diet, or starve myself, I just ate real whole foods in balanced proportions and only enough to satisfy hunger.
If you get chance to watch "The Half Ton Man" on Discovery Health. Patrick Deuel lost a large amount of weight in a few months when he was hospitalized and on a 1200 calorie diet. He had to lose a lot of weight before he could have the gastric bypass surgery.
No. Walking helps. Just moving around and not sitting in front of the television or computer all day long. Buying a dog helps a great deal. Weight Watchers is a great program.
ping for your expertise.
I'm not a nutritionist, but I am a licensed health care professional and I've studied nutrition. I've also lost 43 pounds during this past year. Not to the impressively Jim levels, but good enough for me! What some dont realize is that it takes a LOT of calories to sustain 600 pounds. HAVE to eat lots to keep it on. Alter the amount to the level you want to be, and the body will automatically shed, and for the morbidly obese, the process can be quite rapid at first, especially if one, like Jim, increases the calorie expenditure. As one loses, it does tend to slow down some as body adjusts.
It is absolutely the truth. I was a groomsman in his wedding yesterday, and I've known him for about twenty years, so I know a little about the story. I think the main key is that doing exercise against that much weight actually helps to get the weight off. It becomes harder the thinner you become, because it's easier to do a push-up when you're 220 pounds vs. 600.
Bottom line: in September of 2004, I think it was, he and I went up to Oklahoma, and he still looked pretty large. I didn't see him again until November, and even in that short time, I could barely recognize him.
A buddy of mine who was pretty big went through USMC boot about a year after I did. I almost couldn't recognize him, either.
This is a great motivating story. Please convey our congratulations, and thanks for putting this up on the web. I don't have a weight problem, but I do have other bad habits that I need to beat, and I really appreciate this kind of thing.
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